Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.2): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 58 - Proving the Creation as Divine Attribute

Rāma said: O venerable sir, what an extensive, noble, grand and clear prospect have you exposed to my sight; ¹.

I find also by my percipience, that the entity of the One and sole Ens, fills the whole space at all times and places; and that it is the essence which shows itself alike in every manner and form always and every where forever and evermore.

I have yet some scruples sir, rankling in my breast, and hope you will please to remove them, by explaining unto me the meaning of your story of the stone ².

Vasistha replied: Rāma, I will relate to you the story of the stone, inorder to establish that this whole or the plenum, is existent in all times and in all places ³.

I will elucidate to you by means of this story, how thousands of worlds are contained within the compact and solid body of a stone; ⁴.

I will also show to you in this story, how the grand material world ⁵.

You will also find from this story, that there is in the midst of all plants and their seeds, and in the hearts of all living animals, as also in the bosom of the elementary bodies of water and air as of earth and fire, sufficient space containing thousands of productions of their own kinds.

Rāma rejoined: If you say, O sage, that all vegetables and living beings are full with the production of their respective kinds, then why is it that we do not perceive the numerous productions, which abound in the empty air?

Vasistha replied: I have already told you Rāma, much about this first and essential truth; that the whole of this creation which appears to our sight, is empty air and subsisting in the inane vacuum only.

In the first place there is nothing that was ever produced in the beginning, nor is there anything which is in existence at present; all this that appears as visible to us is no other than Brahma Himself, and subsisting in his Brahmic or plenary immensity or fullness. ⁶

There is no room for an atom of earth, to find its place in the fullness of the divine Intellect, which is filled with its ideal worlds; nor do the material worlds exist in Brahma, who is of the form of pure vacuum.

There is no room even for a spark of fire, to have its place in the intellectual creation of god which admits of no gap or pore in it; nor do this worlds exist in any part of Brahma, who is entirely a pure vacuity.

There is no possibility also for a breath of air, to subsist in the imporous fullness of the intellectual creation of god; nor does any of these ⁷ worlds, exist in the purely vacuous Intellect of Brahma.

There is not even a jot of the visible vacuity, that finds a place in the intensity of the ideal creation in the divine mind; nor is it possible for any of these visible worlds, to subsist in the compact vacuum of the deity.

The five great elementary bodies, have no room in the consolidated creation of God, which subsists in its vacuous form in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

There is nothing created any where, but it is the vacuum and in the vacuity of the great spirit of God.

There is no atom of the great spirit of God, which is not full of creations or created things; nor is there any creation or created thing, but is the void and in the vacancy of the Divine spirit.

There is no particle of Brahma, distributed in the creation: because the Lord is spirit, and always full in Himself. ⁸

The creation is the supreme Brahma, and the Lord is the creation itself; there is not the slightest tint of dualism in them, as there is no duality of fire and its heat.

It is improper to say that this is creation and the other is Brahma, and to think them as different from one another; just as it is wrong to consider a dāru and dārya ⁹ as two things, from the difference in the sounds of the words ¹⁰. ¹¹

There exists no difference of them, when there duality disappears into unity; and when we cannot have any idea of their difference, unless we support the gross dualistic theory; ¹².

We know all this as one clear and transparent space, which is without its beginning and end, and quite indestructible and tranquil in its nature; and knowing this all wise men remain as mute as a piece of solid stone, even when they are employed in business.

Look at this whole creation as whether extinct in the Deity, and view the visible world as a vast void only; look upon your egoism and tuism as mere fallacies, and behold the Gods and demigods and the hills and everything else as the visionary appearances in our dream, which spread their nil of delusion over the minds of men ¹³.

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